Island of Darkness
by Makori
Summary: WoW. A sailor comes upon an environmentalist. The thing is, he's a halfbreed, and she's from a noble family from the Temple of the Moon. Rated for violence and some language


(Note: I'm not too good at writing accents, so bear with me…please? Also, since I am slightly confused about the guns in the game, they're going to look like old guns, but still work like modern guns, and pistols are revolvers. By the way, if at any time it starts to get boring, just keep reading please? My friends think this is okay, and they also play World of Warcraft.)

Chapter 1

A ship was anchored about a half mile away from Sen'jin Village. The crew was anxious and jumpy. They had guns, sure, but they were still nervous as hell. The _Dawn's Blood_ was a freighter, but also sometimes served as a whaling ship. A Goblin, a Gnome, and a Dwarf were all playing cards, but with an apprehensive feeling. This was Horde territory, and nearly all were Alliance, except for the First-mate, a Tauren named Marshall. The captain was in Sen'jin Village right now, working some business with the Trolls and some 'personal businesses' as well. All the crew hoped that he and Marshall got back so they could get under way before a Horde patrol discovered them. Unbeknownst to the crew, a small platoon of Horde soldiers was rowing up in small boats toward the ship. It wouldn't be able to go anywhere fast, since they were coming from the North, the Echo Isles blocked the way East, and Sen'jin Village was to the South. Captive prey.

"Danks, Gro'kwan. You wodna believe how much we need'd dese supplies, mon," said a figure.

There was a larger figure standing behind him with its arms crossed, towering over the first figure and the hut's other occupant.

The Troll smiled and said "No problem, Jezz. Ammo you can make, but food ah give. Still dependin' on me ta getcha outta your probbems, eh?" At this, he got a playful punch on the arm. "Ah'll make shua dey get delibbered by da endadda day. Where did ya say your ship was?"

The first figure, Jezz, stepped around Marshall and pulled back the beaded curtain that served as a door and pointed out to the Northeast, saying "Between da Darkspear Strand an Echo Isles."

The light fell on Jezz's light skin. His _human_ light skin. But the truth is, he wasn't human. That was only what he looked like. But if you concentrated closely on his features, you'd realize he wasn't like other humans. He was taller, with long legs and strong arms. His hair was definantly longer too, and it was green. He had it pulled back into a ponytail, which hung out from under his captain's hat. His grey eyes held a sort of domestic ferocity to them, if there was such a thing. He had a long overcoat, chain boots that were referred to as 'Mud Stompers', leather pants, a swashbuckler's shirt with a black vest over it and a pistol in a holster at his side. Slung over his shoulder was a Silver Plated Shotgun, crafted by him. He loved guns and everything to do with them. He was a Hunter after all, why shouldn't he love guns? Yes, that's right, he was a half-breed. His father had served in the Theramore Isle guard before he was killed at sea and his mother had died here only two years ago, so technically, he was a Horde member by birthright. By species, he was both. By profession and occupation, an engineer and sailor, he belonged to the sea. His pet, a small, red raptor named Artemis, stood up as Jezz took a few more steps out of the hut. Sen'jin Village was his home as much as Darnassus was home to a Night Elf. The only other home he had was his ship, the _Dawn's Blood_. Speaking of which, he turned and looked out at the direction of his ship, only to see white smoke billowing into the sky. The distress signal.

Turning back to his First-mate and his brother, he said "Danks fo' da food, bro. Marshall, we need ta get back to da ship. Summing's wrong."

Without a word, Marshall bounded around the back and led a large Kodo out from behind the hut. Effortlessly leaping into the saddle behind the First-mate, he waved to his brother as they bounded off, Artemis sprinting alongside them. The large power boat they had used to get here was one of Jezz's creations. It was more like a flatbed raft with railings on the sides and a rough engine on the back than a real boat, but it was able to carry the combined weight of the Tauren and Kodo. Reaching for the engine hatch, Marshall hauled it open and started throwing some wood in while Jezz took the wheel. Driftwood was very easy to find, especially around shipwrecks. Waiting for it to dry, however, was about as infuriating as trying to communicate with a Thresher. Jezz chuckled to himself. He knew that it was impossible to communicate with a Thresher. Not even the most advanced mages or druids could. He knew. He'd escorted two, a druid AND a mage, to Darkshore. The druid had been ripped apart, and if it weren't for Jezz and Marshall firing on the beast, the mage would've been too. Instead, she just got a broken leg and a horrible view as the beast grabbed her partner in its jaws and dove away. The things were almost completely bulletproof; you had to use a cannon to kill it without getting killed yourself. Finally, Marshall threw in the last piece of wood needed and closed the hatch with a grunt. Jezz, hearing the sound, reached for the lever that started the fire in the engine. With a loud bang and a puff of steam from a large funnel on top of the engine, the fire started, and the engine roared to life. The raft lurched forward, pulling away from shallow water. Now was the danger time. If anything was going to attack, it would be in these deeper waters. Marshall set his rifle, a 'BKP 2700 Enforcer', against the wood pile, near enough so it could be grabbed in an emergency, but far enough away to not interfere with his work. Jezz steered for the white smoke, careful to look out for reefs, rocks, and debris. If anything hit the bottom, it would pierce the wood like an arrow through leather. As they came within visual range of the ship, Jezz could hear gunshots, battle cries, then the deep 'boom' of a cannon. It looked like the ship had been found again. Rolling his eyes, Jezz signaled to Marshall, who started shoveling dirt onto the fire while Jezz shut down the engine. It would take a bit of a stretch before they fully stopped. As they drew closer, Jezz could see several Horde boats, with mostly Orcs in them. As he watched, another volley of gunfire rang out, and more Orcs fell off the side of the ship as they tried to climb. A 'boom' sounded, and a second later, a boat blew up into splinters, throwing bodies everywhere. The power boat finally reached where the crane that hauled it up was, but no one came. Jezz and Marshall exchanged a glance, looked back up, then Jezz said "I guess we climb."

Working things out with the Horde wasn't too difficult. After agreeing that they wouldn't return for a year and even then fly up a white flag with the Horde banner on it when they DID, the Orcs finally left. The bodies of the crew were collected and deposited wrapped up in the meat locker. Jezz looked on in silent depression while this happened. This was how it always was. At just about every port, they had to get into a gunfight. Too many were dying. He stormed back to his cabin, while the crew scuttled out of the way. The captain would mope in his cabin for a few days while the ship sailed. Jezz had already left explicit orders behind with Marshall, who took the wheel and started bellowing commands. That was just about all Marshall talked about. He had served in the Horde military until a battle in Arathi Basin left him with strained vocal cords. It hurt him to talk, and a Tauren never shows a weakness. So, this is why he and Jezz went ashore together. Jezz could talk, while Marshall looked on and didn't have to reply, but step in if things got bad. **"DARKSHORE!"** bellowed the First-mate, and the crew sprang into action. In the wheelhouse, the navigator, a Gnome named Beldord, plotted a course North, then began to look for any shorter or safer ways. The sails were raised, fires put out, anchor hauled up, and power boat hauled onto the deck, then tied down. The Kodo was taken down into the hold, where other livestock was. Horses and cattle were needed in Darkshore for the war effort, as well as a few caged up Nightsabers. Nobody liked having the monstrous cats on board, not even the translator, a Night Elf named Sylvanan. Said elf was walking towards the captain's cabin, running a hand over his purple beard and moustache. Every time the captain was brooding in his cabin, Sylvanan would always try to get him out of it. Today, though, he might be successful, since he had something to talk about with the grumpy captain.

Jezz was sipping a drink when the familiar soft knocking came to the door. Had he not had Troll in him, he would've missed it.

Sighing, he said "C'mon in, Sylvanan."

His voice was cracked, as it always was when he was moping. The door opened, and the translator walked in. He was of average height and build for a Night Elf, tall to a Human, short to a Troll, monstrous to a Gnome, yet the right build to an Orc. Yet, to Jezz, he was the right height.

Jezz stood up, his long legs unfolding, saying "Ya, Sylvanan, whatizzit?"

The elf had a smile playing on his lips and he said "Sir, my wife is giving birth soon, and since we are headed for Darkshore, I was wondering if I could take temporary leave and visit her."

Jezz, not really caring, waved his hand and said "Dun'." Sylvanan was about to leave when a thought occurred to him. Looking back, he saw that while the cabin might not have been spacious, with just a bed, a desk in the corner, and a liquor cabinet, it definantly had room for another.

A smile crept onto his lips as he said "Captain, maybe it's time for you to settle down. You're definantly strong enough to impress Troll females, and I'll bet that every time we go to Menethil Harbor the girls keep staring at you. You can choose either species."

Jezz said nothing, standing with his back to the door, but you could tell he was getting mad, since the tips of his slightly pointed ears were turning bright red. Sylvanan quickly realized he'd made a mistake, and could pay for it with not only the visit to his wife, but maybe even his life. He braced himself for the explosion. And it came.

Jezz whirled around, baring his teeth, two of which were longer than normal human's, and snarled "Dat's **MA** business, Elf! And if ya value yar employment and life, ah suggest ya keep **OUT **of ma business! An' if ya stick around fa' much longer, a'm not only gonna say 'nah' ta ya visit, but a'm also gonna trow ya ovaboard!" In a second, the Night Elf was gone, shutting the door behind him. Jezz sighed. _Menta' note ta self; getta lock on da door._

A pair of silver eyes penetrated the darkness in the tree. The eyes were soon followed by a face, one with pale purple skin. It was a Night Elf, a female who was currently trying to find something. Her name was Azshala, and she had a short fuse, which was pretty unusual in Night Elves, who almost always managed to be calm, no matter what situation presented itself. She crept further out onto the branch, being aware of how much strain she was putting on it. A little more, a little more…there! There it was. She quickly hopped down to another branch, then regretted it as said branch snapped under her weight and the force of her jump. She managed to grab another branch as the first fell. Looking down, she saw that the rest of the way was only about fifteen feet to the base of the tree. So, she shrugged and let go. Her feet hit the soft dirt of the forest, and she stood up, leaning against the tree for a minute to catch her breath. As soon as she was able to stand on her feet without panting, she grabbed up her weapons and hurried out towards the beach. A small campfire was lit, and sitting around it were four Night Elves, a Dwarf, two Humans, a Gnome, and a sleeping Timber Wolf, which was the companion of the Dwarf.

As she ran up, the Dwarf, who had been tinkering around with an explosive, earning him frightened looks from the others, looked up and pushed up his goggles, waving and shouting "'Ey Azshala! What be new, eh?"

Azshala quickly knelt down and said "You will not believe what I have found."

"Another beached creature?" asked one of the Humans.

"Yes, Tom, but it's unlike the others. So bizarre…"

All the others exchanged looks, then turned back to her with nervous stares. The Dwarf cautiously voiced the unsaid question.

"Bizarre…how?"

Azshala looked back up, having been snapped out of her reverie.

"Oh, sorry Mogrann, I don't really know how to describe it…you'll just have to see."

She sprang up, and all the others groaned. Tom got up, struggling slightly since his armor weighed him down a bit, and Mogrann had to kick his Timber Wolf, Kelpie, in the side to wake her up.

"C'mon girl, we got to be moving."

Kelpie got up, reluctantly, and everyone followed Azshala as fast as they could. They traveled for several minutes, and while the Night Elves and Gnome were able to keep up without any trouble, since the Gnome had a Mechanostrider, the Humans were starting to falter, and Mogrann and Kelpie were really far behind.

As they passed a shipwreck, Mogrann shouted "Oi! Can ya wait up for-WHOA!"

Kelpie stopped and turned around, slightly curious. Mogrann was gone. Instead, she heard growling and thwacks as well as grunts. She ran back and immediately realized she shouldn't have.

Azshala finally reached the body of the beached creature, and stood in awe of it. The others came around and did the same, only more so. What they saw was a Thresher of enormous proportions, sitting on the beach. Large holes were torn in it, and all the flesh from the middle of its neck and on its ribs was gone.

"Murlocs must have been scavenging this," said one of the Night Elves, pulling a sword out and looking around.

"Fine dining tonight," said the other Human, a woman named Sadie.

The Night Elf looked back at her and said "Keep your voice down. The Murlocs might be nearby still."

Everyone drew weapons at this. Murlocs were known to be viscous and merciless, attacking first and not bothering to ask questions. They were another species that couldn't be communicated with. Azshala and the Gnome, who was named Sprock, approached the dead behemoth.

"My word," gasped Sprock in a high-pitched voice as he dismounted. "This thing is HUGE! Oh, we need to get a sample of this back to Ironforge!"

As part of the Explorer's League, it was his and Mogrann's duty to take back whatever they could. As the Gnome stepped even closer to the corpse, Azshala looked around.

"Where are Mogrann and Kelpie? I know that they almost always fall behind, but this is ridiculous. Even if they were REALLY slow, they should've caught up by-"

The rest of her sentence was drowned out by a sort of gargling snarl, a scream, then the sound of metal on metal. She whirled around in time to see Sprock's feet being dragged through the ribs of the dead beast, while three creatures were tearing apart the Mechanostrider. She gasped as she saw what they were; _Murlocs._ Immediately, the area erupted in chaos. Two rough spears came out of the darkness and sank into one of the Night Elves while more mobbed Tom and another Night Elf. Sadie was screaming as another Night Elf was dragged back into the darkness, and that's when Azshala panicked. She fled, scrambling over the dead creature and leaping over the Murlocs that were starting on Sprock's body. She ran, hearing more Murlocs pursuing her. Oh, dammit! What did she do to deserve this! With a sudden bang, the entire beach was lit up with a blue light. She took this opportunity and sprinted ahead of her pursuers. Suddenly, another Murloc leapt out in front of her, giving her no chance to stop. She braced herself for the inevitable end…And that's when she heard and saw the most beautiful things. A gunshot rang out, and a bullet hit, no, smashed, the Murloc in the head. She could visibly see the skull of the water creature fold inwardly as the hot, flying piece of metal sped through, drilling through its brain. She looked over to her right out to sea as more gunshot rang out, slaughtering the Murlocs behind her, too. She could see a raft, with railing on the sides and…she blinked. Was that an engine on the back? Several men were crowded onto the vessel, including one tall human and a Tauren.

_20 Minutes earlier…_

"Awright, Jack, just alittle mo'," said Jezz as he looked over the side of the powerboat.

The _Dawn's Blood _had to stop here for now, since for some reason, the rock formations of the waters around Twilight Vale were completely different from Beldord's sea charts. The powerboat could go in more shallow areas than the _Dawn's Blood_, so they were going to take readings and see if there was any way to get through. Going around would just be a waste of time, since the reef went all the way back North to Auberdine, where they'd dropped off Sylvanan so he could get a boat ride to Teldrassil. Truth be told, Jezz was happy to see him leave. The stubborn Elf had been pestering him about getting a girlfriend, and frankly, Jezz just wasn't interested. Not only because most girls didn't appeal to him, but also because he knew that no girl would stay with him once she realized what he was. His train of thought was briefly interrupted when the power boat hit the water. _Da only gurl who'd stay wid me was anudder 'alf-breed,_ he thought as he started the engine and turned the speed to low. They had to be careful, or else they'd run into one of the rocks themselves. Beldord had an atlas opened to the Twilight Vale section, ready to make changes. The map was a topographical one, and all the squiggly lines that made no sense to everyone else rang clear as a bell to the little red-haired Gnome. Turning out to the waters near the beach, Jezz informed everyone to be on the lookout for Threshers and Murlocs. At this, each man raised his rifle and started nervously scanning the water in front of them. The Dwarves seemed slightly calmer, but then, how can you be calm when there could very well be something hiding right under your nose, ready to tear you apart. Jezz looked back at the _Dawn's Blood_, and was realized to find that they were still in cannon range. If they ran into a Thresher, the power boat would crumple like a paper cup. _Menta' not ta self; reinforce da powa' boat with metal on da bottom._ Suddenly, the night was pierced with a scream. Shutting down the engine, Jezz grabbed his rifle from beside the wheel. True, he DID have a shotgun as well, but the rifle had a scope attached, and had the range to hit anything on the beach. Marshall had put out the fire and grabbed his rifle, fixing an attachment onto the end. It was one of Jezz's inventions, a launcher that worked by gunpowder. Loading a flare magazine into the rifle, Marshall fired three flares, one down on the far left, one in the middle, and one to the far right. What they saw made everyone freeze, mouths open. Nothing was happening on the right, but on the left two Humans and a Night Elf were fighting off a mob of Murlocs. No one had seen that many in one place before, not even in the villages. No one paid any attention to the large creature, but everyone's eyes were fixed on the middle of the beach. A Night Elf girl was running from about half a dozen Murlocs, and another had just jumped in front of her. Jezz was the first to recover. The way he did was this; he put the rifle up to his face, aimed through the scope, and pulled the trigger. The Murloc in front of the Night Elf was blown away, literally.

"OPEN FIYA'!" He yelled, working the bolt on his gun.

That snapped the men out of it. They all aimed and fired, slaughtering the Murlocs behind the Night Elf and back on the two Humans, since the other Night Elf just got stabbed in the back. Murlocs were blasted apart, and the others that weren't started retreating into the darkness. Cheers rose up on the power boat, gunshots firing into the air. The festivities didn't last long, however, as a large shadow swam towards the power boat. Two reptilian fins rose up, followed by a broad back.

Azshala couldn't believe what was happening. The Murlocs were retreating! These men had saved their lives! She waved to them, and they all waved back. Sadie and Tom came down the beach. Tom was helping a limping Mogrann, who was bleeding in various places and had many slashes in his armor. Kelpie was faring a little better, but not by much.

"What happened!" Everyone asked at once.

Mogrann quickly stated that he'd been ambushed by Murlocs, and he'd managed to scare them off with a few pistol shots, some ax swings, and some dynamite. As an explanation for what happened to her, Azshala just pointed at the boat. It was at that moment that a Thresher broke the water behind them with a hideous snarl. The men all turned and fired, but the tall, green-haired human, who seemed to be in charge, told them to stop firing as the thing submerged again. While all the men frantically looked around, pointing their guns in every direction, the Tauren calmly loaded something into his rifle and waited. The calm was eerily broken by the whoosh of the waves on the beach.

Jezz quickly reached into his coat and pulled out a Copper Bomb, making sure it was hidden from sight. The explosive wouldn't kill the reptile, but it might be enough to stun it for a bit. The flare Marshall had just loaded into his gun was red, and it would give the gunners on the _Dawn's Blood_ somewhere to fire. Hopefully, it wouldn't be right under the power boat. Minutes passed. Then, with no warning at all, the Thresher resurfaced in a spray, no an explosion, of water. Mouth opened, it snarled again and lunged…and that's when Jezz threw the bomb. With a blast that rocked the power boat, the Thresher was knocked back at the exact same time the red flare was fired. It landed close, really close, but it missed by a few yards. Unfortunately, when directing an artillery barrage, close isn't worth a shit. Especially when it lands VERY close to the beach of the people you're trying to protect. Jezz could hear the 'booms' of the cannons, then the whistling of the cannon balls.

"LOOK OUT, MON!" He shouted at the Night Elf, who regarded him with a peculiar expression.

Of course, he'd said 'mon'. He'd given himself away. His mind gave him a swift kick in the ass.And then came the explosion. One cannonball hit the stunned Thresher, almost all the others hit water. And then, when it seemed over and the power boat wasn't rocking, the last one hit the beach on a meter from the Elf, throwing her backwards to the ground.

The last thing Azshala remembered was the explosion in front of her. Then, everything went black and she was falling into darkness. Falling, falling…..falling….

(Whew!4,000 words in one! Ok, please be nice in the reviews, I'm going to wait until I get two b4 I post the next chappie. Ok?...Please, don't kill me.)


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